I dislike Rubio the least. I gave Carly a good look, but I don’t think she has what it takes to get here over the finish line, but if she stays in the race I’ll keep an eye on her. I could live with Cruz at this point, but “midwest vacuum cleaner salesman” sticks in my head every time I hear him talk.

You don’t have to. I don’t intend to. That doesn’t mean I’ll vote for the Democrat. I’m just hoping the Republican candidate isn’t so bad that I feel obligated to cast a vote to keep them from winning. Right now I’m hoping things break good enough that I can just withhold my vote for the office of POTUS.

That’s a distinct possibility. I voted for Gary Johnson. But even the third parties have been leaning a little goofy with their candidates, and, even though they may have no chance of winning, I don’t want third parties to get the idea they can keep fielding goofy, encouraged by my vote.

I feel your pain. I voted GJ as well. I deeply respect the not voting option, and sometimes think it would be better to go that route. However, I usually do for two reasons: I think that not voting is usually misinterpreted as apathy. I think that voting for a third party, when possible, sends a stronger voice of disapproval–it may be dismissed as “nutjob” but it counts for something. It probably helps that I currently live in a swing state. The second reason is as a buffer against vote fraud (by getting my name marked off the list of voters in the county).

I would propose, too, that getting out to vote is a good reminder that there is more to elections than the President. If showing up to write in “Santa Claus” for President gets you out so that you vote for the local initiatives and Congress-critters, then I consider that a good thing.

I think too often we look at the Presidential candidates and decide that none of them are all that Presidential, and then stay home…letting the Party of Evil win the House and Senate. Of course, the Party of Stupid is demonstrating, yet again, that they might as well be the Party of Evil…

Incidentally, this is one of the big problems with the Libertarian Party. They lways field Presidential candidates. They usually field Governor, Senate, and House candidates. They sometimes field State Senators and Representatives. They rarely notice that there are plenty of County, City and Town candidates that need to be fielded.

This leads to two sore spots: we need Libertarianism as much, if not more, on the local level, than we do on the higher levels; and getting experience on the local level is good preparation for moving up the ranks to bigger offices.

The way I see it, if a candidate can’t convince you to vote for him, then it’s their fault, not yours. This may sometimes be a problem strategically, but it’s the candidate’s problem just as much as it is the voter’s.

Actually, I’m kindof tired of always blaming the third-party voters for voting their conscience, when it comes to winning and losing. Often, a vote for a third party is a vote that would have just stayed home otherwise…

Perhaps we need to start pointing out that the Libertarian party would have won this time, if it weren’t for all those voters throwing their vote away on that tepid, spineless Republican candidate!